Formative Assessment and Summative
Assessment
Assessment for learning and assessment of
learning
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
Boise State University
From
Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry,
Wilhelm (Scholastic)
Inquiring Minds Learn to Read and Write,
Wilhelm, Wilhelm and Boas (Scholastic)
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Formative assessment Teacher’s Guide Notes
Think –Pair-Share about Interesting Quotes:
‘What if we viewed being smart as a goal that students could work towards rather than as something
that they either are or are not?’ Ron Ritchhart.
‘When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, the summative.’
Robert Stake.
‘Summative assessment is like an autopsy, formative is the wellness check up.’ Cris Tovani.
‘Whenever we learn we question ourselves. How am I doing? Is this enough? Is this right? How can I
tell? Should I go further? In the act of questioning is the act of judging ourselves and making
decisions about the next step. This is self assessment.’ Boud, 1995.
‘…the levels of higher order thinking required in self-assessment need to be developed as social
practices before they can be internalized by the pupil… If pupils are not encouraged to participate
within their learning environment, in interactions with one another and with the teacher, in ways
which promote higher order thinking skills, then their involvement in self-assessment is unlikely to
be of value.’ Ruth Dann, 2002
‘If the teacher assumes that knowledge is to be transmitted and learned, that understanding will
develop later, and that clarity of exposition accompanied by rewards for patient receptions are the
essentials of good teaching, then formative assessment is hardly necessary.’ Black and Wiliam
(1998)
Some framing ideas
- How formative assessment can be used in the context of reading, learning and writing instruction
and feedback to help kids write with more conventional/grammatical correctness.
- Frame under the banner of inquiry based learning and the goal of providing teaching moves to
assist with differentiating the learning.
- Assessment for learning and as learning (student evaluation and self-assessment). Explore these as
working together, not stand along concepts and under the banner of ‘formative assessment’
Address the Misconceptions about Formative Assessment
Too difficult, too time consuming, extra work for teachers.
Impossible in the context of grades, testing etc…
Often seen as separate or stand alone to the learning process.
Disjointed and disconnected, added at the end of a unit plan.
The students don’t value it; they just want a result
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What is formative assessment?
Formative assessment is what drives learning. It is inquiring into what is understood, how it is
understood, and what should be done next. All learning in fact begins with formative assessment.
At the beginning of a unit, we ask: what do you know already about the said topic? This can be a
question used to help inform the teacher of where to begin the unit; what material needs to be
recovered and so forth, or as a personal reflective question, where the students keeps track of the
learning. Introducing a new strategy or skill, assessment determines a student’s present level of
skill, knowledge, understanding and performance. The information guides the teacher to make
plans for instruction.
During the learning process it’s the ongoing feedback that is used to monitor learning progress and
serves as the ‘thermometer for student understanding.’ It raises questions for the teacher, are my
plans moving too quickly or too slowly for the students? Do I need to regroup students to meet
specific needs vs. assuming all students move at the same pace? Are there skills needed before they
approach a task that I failed to consider?
And after the learning, formative assessment measures a student’s ability to use newly acquired
information, strategies and skills. It allows them to demonstrate their understanding by applying the
new learning in a new situation that mirrors the real world (authentic assessment).
Paul Black and Dylan Wiliams (1998) note that such assessments only become ‘formative
assessments’ when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet the needs of
the students.
Assessment is commonly defined in the categories of summative and formative. Summative
assessments are typically done at the end of something. A summative assessment determines the
status of learning and is typically in the form of a grade or a bench mark of some type. Author Lorna
Earl (2003) refers to this summative assessment as assessment of learning. We believe that much
assessment of learning leads to an emphasis on performance and too often is used to identify
failure. Earl defines Formative assessment under two categories. Assessment for learning is where
data is analysed to help inform the next level of teaching and assessment as learning. With
assessment as learning, the role of the student in the assessment process is emphasised. The
student personally monitors what they are learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to
make adjustments, adaptations, and even major changes in what they understand. Assessment for
learning provides a more constructive focus on improvement.
We believe that formative assessment practices encourage learners to support each other, builds
self motivation, self confidence and self-reliance and formative assessment provides a crucial
element in ….. ‘well rounded pedagogy’ (I know that this sounds wanky, re: word, something about
it being a key element to effective teaching).
Formative assessment is used:
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By teachers to diagnose the student's skill knowledge and understanding level to best meet
their needs
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Inform us as teachers as how to best to help students gain these skills, knowledge...etc...
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Inform us as teachers as to what our next teaching moves should be to ensure that there are
no gaps in understanding
Diagram adapted from content in Lorna Earl 2003.
Why Formative Assessment?
Ultimately a goal we have as teachers is to have our students be able to take action to monitor their
progress, and as Sadler (1989) writes, ‘bridge the gap between where they are and where they are
heading.’ Start with Vygotsky stuff here. What the child can do in co-operation today, can be done
alone tomorrow….. ZPD etc… Formative assessment strategies are effective when they are used to
help students ‘work in the gap’. Bridging the gap between what your learners already know,
understand and can do and what they will know, be able to understand and do in the future (reword). The role of the teacher is not to close the gap for their learners, but to support them to close
the gap for themselves through their own efforts and techniques that work for them (the
differentiation angle? Scaffolding? Releasing responsibility to students).
Far too often assessments conducted in schools and in our lives fall short of meeting this goal. The
assessment practice is ineffective. The assessment fails to uncover what the intended learning
outcomes are, the assessments are interpreted as being unfair or unclear by our students or useless
in really informing the teacher and the students of their capabilities and learning progress.
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So what makes assessment effective? (What do we advocate?)
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Assessment needs to be on-going and continuous and delivered at the point of need.
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It has to have a direct relationship to the learning.
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Assessment needs to be valued as a cyclical process - it informs teachers and students about
what has been accomplished and what to do next. Or the notion, that to teach for true
understanding, you have to plan and assess for understanding. It’s a deliberate move.
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It has to be a manageable process
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It should have meaning for both students and teachers
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It has to involve an articulation of what you are doing as a teacher or what are you doing as
a student? (what is the purpose?)
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and most importantly (and this is where a strong link to inquiry based learning can be made),
successful formative assessment and feedback processes are modelled, shared, developed
and evaluated in a supportive learning environment.
By adopting formative assessment approaches you will be marking less but achieving more. Students
will be engaging in quality dialogue and discussion through guidance, feedback will be more
immediate and directed for your students, learning intentions will be clearer and students will draw
on their peers as well as self-assessment models more, leading to shared classroom assessment
practices.
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•
How will you get your students engaged in this generative topic?
•
What opportunities can you provide for your students so that they can demonstrate
understanding through the culminating performance?
•
What skills will you need to teach or revise?
•
What other explicit teaching will need to take place?
Guiding Questions
Which aspects of formative assessment do you identify as informing and driving learning?
What opportunities can you see for incorporating more formative assessment in your classroom
lessons?
What difficulties or challenges do you foresee and how might these be overcome?
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Specific inquiry unit planning and formative assessment:
What knowledge will students be learning?
Do I need to set aside time to teach the process? How will I do this? (link to conceptual and
procedural goals) How much guidance will I provide?
How will students explain their work and communication their conclusions? (Backwards design
process, need to have then culminating project or performance of understanding in mind.)
How will I monitor progress? (link to the scaffolding, Gradual release of Responsibility)
What will I do to help those who are not using skill, process effectively? (intervention/
differentiation angle here!)
Emphasis the practical!!!! We will be providing lots of practical strategies with clarity around their
purpose, function and use.
As teachers, when we are under pressure we usually think first about what we are going to teach
and what we are going to ask our students to do. This is what we tend to share with our students at
the start of a lesson. We tend to lose sight of what we want our students to learn from undertaking
the tasks we set them and how they will know if they have been successful. Even if we are clear
about both, we tend not to share them.
Why inquiry is so important? Is sets the learning intention upfront. The essential question frames
the learning and directs the inquiry. The conceptual and procedural goals…..
The value of student feedback and student peer feedback
Our students will often tell us, that they want feedback which is immediate and useful. They will
also tell us, that when feedback is given by adults, it often means that they want us to change
something. When given by their peers, it becomes about choice. They can reflect on the ideas,
accept, reject ask for more information and so forth.
Peer feedback is a useful pre-cursor to student self assessment, but the key goal is to plan for this
process. The set up the right classroom environment, the protocols, norms and strategies to assure
success and to ensure that students see the giving and obtaining of feedback as a positive process
that will enhance their learning.
Student self-evaluation – not only how they might assess their own work but also on how they
might become aware of themselves as learners.
Some questions for teachers:
• What is the purpose of providing feedback in the classroom?
• What kind of feedback do I provide my students?
• What feedback is useful to my students?
• How do I illicit feedback about my teaching from my students?
• What questions do I have about providing feedback?
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Useful ‘Quick’ formative feedback tools and strategies:
Strategy: Traffic Lights
One useful way to engage students in this process is to use a traffic light analogy. The teacher asks
the students to raise hands if they feel it’s a ‘green light’ for them. They understand how to use a
strategy, feel confident with the next step and so forth. ‘Orange light’ – perhaps need one more go
at practising, or see one more demonstration (this group – could be pulled aside, worked with). A
‘red light’ would signal a barrier or block for that student in their learning. Not only helpful in
directing the teacher as to what the next teaching moves might be, but empowers the students to
have a voice in the classroom, influence the pace of learning for them.
This information can even more simply by asking students to very quickly let you know how what
they are thinking or how they are progressing with a ‘Thumbs up/ thumbs down’ approach.
Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down/ Thumbs across/Other Hand Signals
Students give a thumbs up signal if they are feeling good about the learning, understand the concept
and so forth. A Thumbs down signifies that students do not get it. Thumbs across or thumbs across
with wiggling thumbs can be used for not sure It’s a quick way to judge pace of learning. Sometimes
‘Fist to Five’ is used. Students raise a clenched fist if they are clear with the concepts or no longer
need more time, then the number of fingers raised to show the level of their understanding or the
more increased time needed. A five, signalling I don’t get it or I need another full five minutes to
finish.
Reflective Sentence starters (or prompts):
Reflective sentence starters, or prompts, can be designed to encourage students to reflect on:
- the prior knowledge that they bring to a new situation
- what is involved in the learning process and how they can involve themselves in it
- work they have done in the past and which is of relevance in a new situation
- the progress they have made
- the learning that they still need to do and what might help them in their learning.
For example:
One thing I learned today…
I wonder…
I’m confused about…
I believe…
One question I have is….
I now know….
The part I found the most difficult was…
To avoid a situation where students routinely respond to a prompt, but perhaps not really engage
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with their purpose, it is important to mix things up. Sometimes, a prompt could make a great
closing moment to a lesson, or used at the start of a lesson. The students could be asked to write to
a prompt in their journals or have a discussion with a peer.
Warm and cool feedback
This feedback protocol involves the students giving ‘Warm’ and ‘cool’ feedback to a presenter. We
believe that if you choose use this protocol that it is important to establish some rules and
guidelines. Always begin with warm feedback. If a student is offering cool feedback, it needs to be
accompanied with constructive suggestions for improvement. To help the student to control this
process and feel safe, it’s also a good idea to allow the student to choose who is providing them with
the feedback.
PQP – Praise, Question, Polish
Similar to Warm and cool feedback, but this strategy offers a little more focus and structure for
discussion. The students begin with praise. They offer praise and positive comments about the
presentation. The students can write down a question or two to ask the presenter at the end (useful
in not having a presentation disrupted half-way through). Then final P stands for polish, a chance to
offer suggestions on how a presentation or piece of work may be improved.
It is useful to create a proforma for this feedback tool. To deliberately provide more space for praise
and room to just write one or two ways to polish.
Muddy Marvy
Muddy/marvy moment: On a sticky note, students write about one confusion or one marvelous
De Bono
Fat and Skinny questions
Fat questions encourage more higher order thinking.
e.g. What does this tell us about… What is the same and what is different about… How can we
explain… What would happen if… What do we need to know… How can we be sure about… Why do
you think that…? Do you have a reason? How do you know? Is there another way? What do you
think? Can you be sure? Why do you think that?
Graphic organisers (a general view: we can more specifically refer to organisers when we present
units and when used in context)
•
•
Exit Slips/Ticket out the door/passport: Any variation of this will let students summarize the
learning for the day. See examples on company server
3-2-1: 3 facts, 2 controversies, 1 similarity or 3-2-1: 3 summaries, 2 questions, 1 interesting
fact
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•
•
Two minute summary: one or two minute quick write
2 Stars and a wish or 2 pluses and a suggestion: two points of positive feedback and one
suggestion for improvement
Exit Card
Name: _________________
3-2-1 Reflections sheet
3 things that you learned about today…
2 lingering questions or wonderings or things that you want to explore more in the future…
1 goal that you have for your teaching based on today…
Include a changed thinking diagram here. I used to think, now I think…
First I’m thinking, now I’m thinking, etc etc.. The concentric circles chart.
When students use graphic organisers to brainstorm ideas, develop and organise ideas, see
connections, patterns and relationships, classify or categorise concepts, ideas and information this is
formative assessment. The teacher assists students to analyse the graphic organisers to assist
learning.
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Some example proformas:
Learning Target
Name:
Date:
I have been working on…
The areas in which I need to improve are….
My next learning target is to…
In order to achieve this target, I will need to (list steps)
I will know that I have succeeded when…
I am to achieve this target by….
Student-Led Conference Reflection
My conference went well because…
For my next conference, I need to remember to…
Things that I have learned by preparing and holding a conference are….
One of the difficult things about my conference was…
Things that my parents have learned about me from the conference are…
Student-Led Conference Parent Reflection
Our thoughts about our child’s personal and academic growth at school….
Our thoughts on the student –led conference…
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3 Step Interview Questions
Describe something new that you learnt through this activity/ learning experience.
Describe the process you went through as a learner.
What supported your learning?
What hindered your learning?
What was important to you while you were learning?
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How did you know you had learnt something?
Contextualise the whole process with some really hip units and learning sequences.
Key Being Literate Writing Dispositions
Student: ______________________________
Dispositions
Date
Comment
Takes risks
•
Tackles new
words (spelling)
• Unusual
language
• Unfamiliar
language
Assumes responsibility
•
Sets and meets
deadlines
• Sets challenges
• Makes decisions
Willing to revise
Prepared to make
changes to draft copies
Seeks assistance
•
•
Requests
conferences
Discusses
writing with
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others
Is critically reflective
•
•
Shares insights
Builds on past
experiences
Perseveres
•
Works alone or
with others
ignoring
distractions
Shares writing with
others
•
•
Accepts advice
Gives
suggestions to
others.
Accepts uncertainty
Suspends judgement
Student Portfolio – Evidence of Understanding
Work Sample
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What the work tells me
about this student’s
understanding
What the work
does not tell me
about this
student’s
understanding
Questions I could
ask this student
whilst conferring
(to shed light on
level of
understanding)
Teaching move(s) I
could make (To
increase student
ability to make sense
of text and
demonstrate
understanding)
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Name: ___________________________
Date: _____________
Student Self-Assessment Form
My Strengths and Areas to Improve
Work Sample/ task: ____________________________________________________
My Opinion
My Strengths are _____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
What I need to work on is _______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
My Teacher’s or Classmate’s Opinion
Strengths Include _____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Work on ____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
My Plan
What I will do now is ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Next time I will ask for feedback from _____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Adapted from: Classroom Assessment for student learning: Doing It Right – Using It Well, By R. J Stiggins et al,
2004, Portland.
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Exit Card
Name: _________________
3-2-1 Reflections sheet
3 things that you learnt from the seminar today…
2 lingering questions or wonderings or things that you want to explore more in
the future…
1 goal that you have for your teaching…
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